1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to self-opening, side-sealed bags made of a linear low density polyethylene material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Plastic bags for customer use and convenience are widely used in many types of retail stores and commonly provided in grocery stores and supermarkets. Plastic bags of the type to which the present invention is directed are often provided as a means to hold produce items, e.g., fruits and vegetables, and may also be used to hold poultry, meat, seafood and bakery products. Such bags also provide a means of segregating from one another the various items to be purchased by the customer, which facilitates the checkout process.
Prior art plastic bags have sometimes been manufactured in a continuous roll with a perforation between the adjacent bags. A bag is removed from such a roll by exerting force to tear a bag from the roll along the perforation. Once the bag has been removed, the customer is faced with the sometimes difficult task of opening the bag.
It is also known in the art to manufacture and assemble plastic bags into a bag stack which are then dispensed from an appropriate assembly. Such a stack of plastic bags includes a disposable upper portion which is detachably connected to the lower portion containing the plastic bags by making perforations between the upper portion and the bags. A header is attached to or built into the upper portion to permit the stack to hang on a dispensing assembly. When a customer desires to use a plastic bag, the customer pulls on the outermost plastic bag in the stack and tears it away from the upper disposable portion at the perforation. The customer may also encounter difficulty in opening such bags.
A common type of bag which has found significant use at checkout counters in grocery stores and supermarkets has been the so-called T-shirt bag, which provides laterally spaced handles that extend upwardly from opposed sides of an open mouth in the top of the bag to provide ease in carrying of the bag by the customer. These bags may also be fabricated in stacks, and usually the stacks of these bags have holes formed in the handles for attachment to a dispensing apparatus. These T-shirt plastic bags have typically been fabricated from high density polyethylene (HDPE), which has different manufacturing and processing characteristics from the lower density polyethylene.